Does Ethnicity affect Culture?

Question

I really don't understand how.

Could you give me an example?

Answer 1

Ethnicity does not automatically affect culture.  However, a lot of ethnic groups have developed similar cultures among themselves because of continued contact within that ethnic group, and this has led to similarities between the culture of people with the same ethnicity.  For example, a Chinese person probably has a lot of culturally similarities with another Chinese person if the two of them grew up in China because of the shaping factors of society there.  However, a Chinese American who grew up in the U.S. would  not necessarily share a similar culture with a Chinese person who has lived in China his/her whole life.  There might be some more similarities if that Chinese American grew up with traditional Chinese values in his/her home, but if he/she was adopted to European-American parents and had mostly all European-American friends, probably he/she would be more similar to them culturally than to a Chinese person.

Does that make sense?  Ethnicity does not determine culture at all.  It's just that shared ethnicity is a common factor among people with the same culture.  Therefore, it can sometimes be an indicator of cultural similarity or difference.  I would argue that an African American (black) and European American (white) would be culturally more similar than either would be to a Chinese person.  It's not about ethnicity but about "habitus," the society that shaped you.

Answer 2

Ethnicity becomes a major factor, when one crosses over into different cultures!

Answer 3

One could define those two terms in such a way that ethnicity would affect culture. It just depends how they're defined.

Answer 4

Of course it does.